At last the gray of the early dawn appeared in the east, but it was a “high dawn,” with the light first appearing high in the sky, meaning to sailors wind or storm.  Harriet did not know the meaning of it, however, though she thought it a most peculiar looking sky.  And now, as the light came slowly, they were able to get an idea what the sea in which they had been wallowing all night looked like.  It was a fearsome sight.  As they gazed their hearts sank within them.  Mountains of leaden water rose into the air, then sank out of sight again, and when the “Sue” went into one of those troughs of the sea it was like sinking into a great black pit from which there was no escape.  Yet the buoyant hull of the sloop rose every time, shaking the water from her glistening white sides and bending to the oncoming seas preparatory to taking another dizzy dive.

The lower half of the mast was still standing, a ragged stump, the deck itself swept clean of every vestige of wreckage and movable equipment.  What troubled Harriet most was the loss of the water cask.  The small water tank in the cabin had been hurled to the floor by the pitching of the sloop and its contents spilled.  The Meadow-Brook Girl saw that they were going to be without water to drink, a most serious thing, provided they were not drowned before needing something to drink.  As she studied the boat, an idea was gradually formed in her mind, a plan outlined that she determined to try to adopt were the wind to go down sufficiently to make the attempt prudent.  Harriet called the others to her, and the girls talked it over in all its details for the better part of an hour.

There was nothing to eat on board now, nor did many of the party feel like eating.  Tommy, however, found her appetite shortly after daybreak and raised quite a disturbance because there was nothing to be had.  She suggested breaking open the doors that led to the chain locker, but of this Harriet would not hear.  She did not wish water to get in there, for that appeared to be the one part of the boat that was now free from it, and that really had saved them from going to the bottom.  In the meantime the wind did not appear to be abating in the slightest.  All that wretched forenoon the majority of the girls, half-dead from fright and exposure, clung desperately to the cushions of the locker seats, wild-eyed and despairing.  All that forenoon Harriet Burrell, Jane McCarthy, Tommy, Hazel and Miss Elting stuck to their posts and worked without once pausing to rest.  About noon the wind suddenly died out, then began veering in puffs from various quarters of the compass.

“Now, Jane, is our chance,” cried Harriet.  “The storm is broken, but the seas will be high all the rest of the day.  If we can fix up some sort of a sail, we may be able to reach land before long.”

CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION